A short story about why romantic relationships should be between 2 people and not 3!!!

This is a very cliché story of a couple and an over intrusive 3rd person who won't back off. I'm a guy so clearly I'm writing this from a guy's perspective but I think that the point of the story should hold true even if the roles are reversed.

I have this girlfriend that I have been seeing for about 4 months now, all has been pretty good up to now as it should be considering the short time span. However, the cracks are starting to show. We'll call her Eve for discussion sake (yes another cliché). Eve is very easy going and it's probably the 1st real mature relationship I've had. She is also probably the single most intelligent woman I've ever been with, everyone I know who meets her sings her praises. Eve is an attractive woman which by virtue will attract a lot of attention and desires from the opposite sex. I accept that that as long as you date an attractive woman other guys are gonna wanna try and fuck her. This does not bother me as I do not invest time, emotion or effort in things which I can't and have no interest in controlling. I always put my faith and trust in the person I'm with, not other people. As is normal, I accept that Eve had a life and friends before ever meeting me. So did I. I never want to impose myself or my beliefs on any other person especially the person I'm with. I do not seek to change any other person to my view of what should be. I'd rather find a person that I can be at peace with from the get go.

Ok, back to the cliché. Eve has a friend, we'll call him Snake (I already warned you about the clichés). Eve has known Snake for quite some time before she met me. I also know snake perhaps not as well but where we are is a small place and if you roam in certain circles everybody knows everybody. I never had a problem with Snake before, in fact we were on a friendly basis. After Eve and I started seeing each other I took it upon myself to open my hand in friendship to Snake in order to let Eve know that I'm ok with her friends (even the guys). I did this because I've been in the position before where my ex was so paranoid about about the women friends I had that I ended up having to turn my back on all of them and today I have none. One night Eve was out partying with Snake and his friends (all guys, no girls, but I'm ok with this because like I said before, I put my trust in her not them) while I was busy with some clients from overseas. Later that night I joined Eve and Snake at the club they were in. When I turned up I greeted Snake and told him IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that I was OK and cool about them hanging out since they were old friends. He responded with thanks and we carried on the rest of the night.

I told Eve what I had said to Snake and she in turn asked him about it. However, Snake decided to deny that we had ever had that conversation. OK then. As time moved on it started to become apparent to me that Snake was madly in love with Eve. He constantly called and SMS her all day everyday, consistently cried to her about how fucked up his life was and how bad his girlfriend was.  He bought her gifts for no reason. He constantly tried to involve her in his life in every conceivable way whilst denying that he had any romantic feelings for her.  He made jokes about cutting his wrists just to get her attention. He brought Eve into the middle of his domestic disputes with his own girlfriend. Wait for it, the best part is yet to come... On top of all this bullshit he then invites Eve, MY GIRLFRIEND!, to go with him to an island. JUST AS FRIENDS!!! Fuck you, you sack of liquid shit! I extended my hand in friendship to him out out respect for Eve, I had no obligation to do it and this is how he showed respect for our relationship. Don't get me wrong, I understand the principle of “Alls fair in love and war” but what has really pissed me off is that when I mention to Eve that I'm not at all happy about this situation and that her friend has disrespected me and our relationship all she can say is that he's always been a good friend to her and has never done anything to wrong to HER! Clearly if he does something to me it does not count as being done to her. That says a lot to me about my importance to her. We even argued about it and she made clear to me that she was not going to make any change in her life for me.

The irony of it is that Eve says that she loves me. The day after the argument Eve apologised to me and said that she was out of order and that she would not hang out with Snake anymore if it bothered me so much because she did not want to do anything that would hurt me. Great! I thought, and we said nothing more about it. I will however state that I never said that she could not not see Snake any more, the only point I tried to make was that he was a liar and had other intentions towards her and that I wanted her to see it so that it wouldn't develop into a problem. But now it has. Two days after Eve apologised to me she felt she had bring up how uncomfortable she felt that she can't see Snake anymore. I told her that if you are so adamant that I'm am wrong about the guy then by all means do what you think is right. I will respect that she did not see it as I do and that she could continue as before and prove me that I'm wrong about the guy. She argued and said no, no, no, she didn't want to hurt me. OK fine, again. The next day Eve brings it up again! So which is it? Is Snake so important that she must stick to her principles that he has never done anything to her or are my feelings about this tosser important enough that you don't want to hurt me? Later Eve tells me that sometimes she's just a bit stubborn and takes time to see things differently and that I should be patient. I can understand that and I believe that I am a patient person but we aren't teenagers anymore and I'm not gonna stand around with my cock in my hand waiting for Eve to see the the painfully fucking obvious! The guy is so obviously in love with her, he has disrespected both myself and our relationship on more than one occasion and she still thinks he's such a good friend! Would a good friend deny when someone offers them friendship? Would a good friend get you tangled up their domestic mess? Would a good friend invite the woman of another man on holiday with him? If Snake was such a good friend wouldn't he just back the fuck off and give us some space especially now that he knows there is tension between us because of him? If the answer is yes to the first 3 questions and no the the 4th then I must be a naive person. Eve maintains that Snake is a really good guy and that she does not want to lose her friend because she feels that she does not have many and the she does not like mine. I can understand her feelings about this and  I myself am in the same situation. To her defence, my so-called friends are not exactly of the highest of the highest calibre either and have done or said things that upset her. The difference is that I did not defend them or argue that they are great guys, I simply agreed that they should not have done that. I put her first. I am of the opinion that a romantic relationship always supersedes that of any other regardless of how old another friendship may be. There are things you say, do and experience in a romantic relationship that can never be done in even a long term close friendship no matter which relationship is older. To put it bluntly, if I'm forced to save my woman or my oldest best friend, I will save my woman. I would expect nothing less from my best friend.

A relationship is like a bicycle, sometimes they have more than two wheels but the bicycles that work best and obviously the most popular are the ones with ONLY two wheels. Everything else is just a SHITTY TRICYCLE.